Reality Kicked My Ass

Absolutely nothing funny or mildly amusing happened today. Don't get me wrong--the kids were great and I got work done around the house, but I watched way too much hurricane coverage on television. And cried. I then checked in with a friend of mine who just moved to Birmingham, AL and has family in New Orleans. She wrote back to say that her sister-in-law and her children are on their way up to stay with them indefinitely. They have no idea if they even have a house to go back to. Her in-laws both work in different hospitals in the New Orleans area. They also don't know if they have a home left. They are both at their hospitals working and trying to salvage what they can. The ex-brother in-law and his new family have not been heard from since Sunday and they are very worried. I then tried to get through to some friends who live in Gulfport, MS but the phones have been down so there is no way to know how they are. Jeff is in the Coast Guard so I would imagine that he is up to his hairline in search and rescue.

I went online and sent a donation and cried some more after I saw footage of children on the balcony of an apartment needing to be rescued. This time, Baby Girl caught me crying and became very upset. She has only seen me cry one other time and I doubt she remembers it. It was about a week before Peaches was born. The cleaning lady had not been gone 15 minutes when I discovered white footprints throughout the house. I followed them to the nursery where I found her "cooking" with all of the baby products we had received as gifts. There was a huge pile of paste on the floor comprised of baby powder, balmex, baby oil, baby lotion and baby bath gel. She claimed she was making pizza. I started to sob hysterically because I had just spent $75 for Agathe to clean my house.

After Baby Girl caught me crying today, she started to cry because I scared her. I then tried to explain that there was a big storm and lots of rain and wind, and then I realized-- she is 2 1/2--I'm going to scare her even more. I changed the subject by offering her Scooby Snacks and all was well. Later as I was fixing dinner the local news indicated that my county's Sheriff's Department had semi trucks 15 minutes from my house and they were taking donations and driving them to Mississippi. So I packed up the girls and went to Kroger and bought as much drinking water, diapers and baby wipes that would fit in the back of my Xterra and took it to the hurricane relief site. I explained to Baby Girl that there were babies far away that needed help and that they needed diapers and water. While she seemed to understand, she didn't seem upset, which was good. She was very excited at the prospect of seeing Police Officers.

So, for a couple of minutes I felt a little better. The television is off for the rest of the day.